Category: Kwon Hayoun

Kwon Hayoun is a South Korean artist that uses virtual reality software to recreate environments that are fictional but based upon a person’s recollection of what happened in the past, thus exploring the notion between fiction and reality, between memories of past and present and between computer animation and art. Can virtual reality environments, and by extension hyper-realistic computer games, be considered a work of art?

489 Years (2015)489 Years (2015) Detail

DMZ

In the VR simulation ‘DMZ’ Hayoun recreates the DMZ (De-Mililtarized Zone) separating North and South Korea based on a verbal account from a South Korean soldier stationed there, using VR to allow a realistic depiction of what it might feel like to be there.

In the installation view Hayoun also recreates standard issue land mines, made of sand, placed all over the floor of the gallery, and as the intro is read, viewers realize the spacing of these ‘sand mines’ correlates to what is actually there in the DMZ, throughout the 4Km by 280Km area.